Debate contribution: Sliabh Beagh: Protection from Fires and Environmental Damage
Debate contribution by Ms Diana Armstrong on .
- MLA
- Ms Diana Armstrong
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 23 September 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Adjournment
- Heading
- Sliabh Beagh: Protection from Fires and Environmental Damage
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5129901
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I thank my fellow constituency MLA Colm Gildernew for bringing forward this very important Adjournment topic today. I attended the same event as Colm in the Sliabh Beagh Hotel, which really raised my awareness of the issues facing the community in the protection of the landscape, species and habitat. Sliabh Beagh is a 9,000-hectare European designated site and area of special scientific interest straddling the Fermanagh-Monaghan border. The peatlands cover a total area of 3,000 hectares: 1,000 hectares in the Republic of Ireland and 2,000 hectares in Northern Ireland. The protection of peat uplands carries ramifications across our whole society. There are many environmental, societal, economic, cultural and tourism reasons why we must take their protection very seriously. Soberingly, half the peatland on Sliabh Beagh was burned in a wildfire last May. I well remember driving towards Fivemiletown from Belfast and seeing the skies lit up red and the palls of smoke. It is something that no one would want to see. Wildfires have significant financial implications. In the case of Sliabh Beagh, it took 200 firefighters to bring that blaze under control, at a cost to the public purse of £1 million. The impact of wildfire on peatland is not only financial. There is no cost that can be put on the catastrophic loss of ecology and biodiversity at Sliabh Beagh. The peatlands at Sliabh Beagh offer many great benefits, such as the storing of carbon, the regulation of water, and shelter for the Irish hare, the pine marten, the red grouse, the golden plover and the endangered hen harrier, amongst others. Healthy peatlands are good for our climate, reduce the risk of floods and support vibrant plant life. When peatlands are degraded and dry, the fire risk intensifies, as we saw at first hand in May. A startling report by the BBC this summer revealed that it could take thousands of years for Sliabh Beagh's peatlands to return to ecological health. I commend organisations such as the River Blackwater Catchment Trust, which is working to bring the ecosystem back and raise public awareness. I recently attended the stakeholder event, as Colm mentioned, at the Sliabh Beagh Hotel, which highlighted the importance of a coordinated approach to the prevention, detection and fighting of wildfires. I commend Roy Spence and Alan McCabe from the River Blackwater Catchment Trust for bringing those interested parties together to increase awareness and inform them of the priorities of the trust and the success that it has had in securing Shared Island funding and PEACE PLUS funding to protect the peatlands. The trust received funding to the tune of £6 million as part of the Shared Island Fund this year.
That enabled the purchase of drone surveillance and infrared technology, which we saw demonstrated.
Restoring Sliabh Beagh, alongside other degrading peatlands, will require stronger enforcement and regulation, where needed, in order to prevent negligent fires and to increase education on the dangers that peatlands face. That will be done through better fire prevention interventions and raising the local community's awareness of the part that it can play in protecting that valuable asset. Protecting peatlands such as Sliabh Beagh is essential for our climate, for nature and for the community. I welcome the Minister's new peatlands strategy, and I will monitor its progress in restoring those vital ecosystems. In closing, I thank the Member for securing the Adjournment debate and again commend the River Blackwater Catchment Trust for the valuable work that it does.
578 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.02 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.80).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.02 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.02 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.80 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.02 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 0.99 |
| Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism | 0.01 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:11 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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